We have lift off!

We have officially started preparation for the build.  Right now, Steve is outside crow-barring off the deck timber!  It's 8:37 at night and dark.... I am glad our neighbours are away.  I wedged off a few pieces of timber too and it is very satisfying. 

The builders came today and dropped off their stuff.  This is their stuff.  Except for the dolls buggy.
.

They've moved in!
 

Here are the official before pics:

The first bits of timber coming off - see Steve working hard.

And me working hard too.  Tough as nails.
 

 From the very back of our section, looking towards where the extension will be built.

  

 Looking out towards back yard from the side of our house.  That tree to the left (Loquat) and the one to the right (Rhododendron) both have to go.

Looking from the front of our house towards the back.  That lovely green foliage above the garage will be gone come Tuesday.

Look what we've done with the front garden, where we will spend all of our free time for the next four or five months:

Ain't it sweet.

My sister and her husband are coming around tomorrow to help with Project Deck-Be-Gone - it's going to be very cool to see everything starting to happen.  Right now we are in the excited phase.  From the reading I've done and people I have canvassed at kindy, on the street and through friends, it seems the excitement soon turns to frustration as it drags on.  I believe them but remain blissfully hopeful that it won't happen to us!

A few people have added that we are crazy bonkers living in the house while it's happening - and to an extent I agree - but we are lucky enough to have other places to go during this build when it all gets a bit much.  I can imagine I will get creative with a BBQ, a slow cooker, a rice cooker and a microwave.  I'll have to!!  And not having to find the cash for rent elsewhere means we can do more with what we have got.

The contract has come in (not quite signed, but a 3.5 hour meeting on Monday sorted through the finer detail) and it's $177k.  This excludes kitchen, flooring and quite a few other bits and pieces.  Which means we are really working to $250k. 

From now there will be progress pics and a running commentary.  I think it will be busy keeping up the writing but I am determined to keep this going so we can have it all documented. 

The girls get grumpy with me when I spend time on the computer writing, and I can understand (Max gets my sole attention when the girls are at kindy, so it's not so much of an issue for him).  Between this, kindy, ballet, doing washing, cooking and the other bits and pieces each day brings, they sometimes have to work hard for my attention.  Being twins, this has been the way for them since day 1.  They are such good buddies though, and they are lucky to have each other so I don't worry too much.  Still, I make an effort each day to have some one-on-one time with each.

The builder is great with young kids, given he has three himself.  He knows what the challenges will be and for that I feel better.  Today he mentioned they will lock off the back doors while preparing for the concrete pad because there will be spikes and nails and all sorts of interesting things out there.  That will be much better than me stressing about them all getting on chairs and opening doors to have a good nosey outside!

Here we go!

x

The beginning

I have no idea what I am doing blogging.  It is probably because life is busy, and in case it all passes in a complete blur, I feel a need to document what we are doing because I'll forget otherwise!  And what we are doing is extending our 1920s wooden bungalow from 140m2 to 200m2, adding in two extra bedrooms, a study, and an open plan kitchen, living and dining area. 

We also have 3 children - 3 year old twin girls, and an 18 month old - and we plan to live here through the process, so it's going to be interesting to say the least!! 

The stage we are at today:  we have council approval!  The builder is chosen (well, 90% there).  The plans are pretty much in the right place.  So we can probably start............in the next month.  Now is the exciting time; time to imagine, dream and do things like look at NZD $21,000 lights (more on that later).

We didn't get an architect.  Instead, we spent a year planning the project, starting with valuable input from our family over Christmas 2011 and a 2012 tweaking the plans.  We hired a fantastic draftsman, who was patient with our 70 million changes and got us the council consent we needed.

So the plans in the beginning looked like this:

The existing house is on the left and the new bit contains kitchen, living and dining. 

Now, they look like this:

So a little more detailed, but not that dissimilar to what we started with after going through about 20 iterations.  Original house in green, extension in black.

Back to that $21k light.  Here it is (http://www.dezeen.com/tag/bocci/):

Hmmm, so back to the drawing board.  I LOVE this and it would look perfect above our kitchen island.  However, we need to have a floor in the house.

We are planning on matching our kauri floors (which are a yellowy brown) in the new bit too.  That is going to be the link from the old to the new.  After much (MUCH) deliberation, I think we will go with a very white kitchen.  That is, white cabinets, white benchtop and white walls.... too much?  This is the look I am thinking of:

I like the simplicity, and the warmth of the wood with the coolness of the white.  My husband is worried that it'll look clinical, but I think you can add colour with lights, flowers, soft furnishings etc. 

On another note, and probably a topic for another day - doors.  We are going to have 6 metre stacker doors on the back of our house, which open all the way up, like a pavillion.  These are what I am most excited about.  In Auckland, it rains a lot (not at the moment, but I digress) but is mostly warm (depth of winter aside) so I want to have the doors open even when it's raining.  Especially with the children around.

Like this (from www.jonesarchitect.co.nz):

I just remembered, I need to do the before pics.  Here are some of our house when we first bought it, 5 years ago:

I forgot to say that while I have been writing this, the twins have alternately drawn on their arms with highlighter and climbed up onto the bathroom cabinet to fill their water bottles up.  So writing has been interspersed with time out in their room.  Fortunately their little brother has been asleep and as I'm looking after my 2 year old nephew as well, that is a life saver!

And with that, I shall sign off, from my first blog entry.

x